Norman Washington Manley

Manley at Jamaica's independence celebrations in August 1962.

The Right Excellent Norman Washington Manley MM QC National Hero of Jamaica (July 4 1893 – September 2 1969), was a Jamaican statesman. A Rhodes Scholar, Manley became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. With his cousin, Alexander Bustamante, Manley was an advocate of the universal suffrage that was granted the colony in 1944.

He founded the left-wing People's National Party which later was tied to the Trade Union Congress and the National Workers' Union, together with Bustamante, in 1938, and led it in every election from 1944 to 1967. Their efforts resulted in the New Constitution of 1944, granting full adult suffrage. He served as the colony's Chief Minister from 1955 to 1959, and as Premier from 1959 to 1962. He was a proponent of the island's participation in the Federation of the West Indies but bowed to pressure to hold a referendum in 1961 which resulted in Jamaica withdrawing from the union.

Biography

Norman Washington Manley was born in Roxborough in Jamaica's Manchester parish, on July 4, 1893. His family heritage was of mixed race, with both white and black members on his mother's side. As a young man, Manley was a brilliant scholar and athlete. He enlisted and fought in the First World War on behalf of the British Empire, and later returned to Jamaica to serve as a barrister. He identified himself with the cause of the workers at the time of the labour troubles of 1938 and donated time and advocacy to the cause.

Manley and the PNP supported the trade union movement, then led by Alexander Bustamante, while leading the demand for Universal Adult Suffrage. When Suffrage came, Manley had to wait ten years and two terms before his party was elected to office. He was a strong advocate of the Federation of the West Indies, established in 1958, but when Sir Alexander Bustamante declared that opposition Jamaica Labour Party would take Jamaica out of the Federation, Norman Manley, already renowned for his integrity and commitment to democracy, called a referendum, unprecedented in Jamaica, to let the people decide.

The vote was decidedly against Jamaica's continued membership of the Federation. Norman Manley, after arranging Jamaica's orderly withdrawal from the union, set up a joint committee to decide on a constitution for separate independence for Jamaica. He himself chaired the committee with great distinction and then led the team that negotiated Jamaica's independence from Britain.

The issue settled, Manley again went to the people. He lost the ensuing election to the JLP and gave his last years of service as Leader of the Opposition, establishing definitively the role of the parliamentary opposition in a developing nation. In his last public address to an annual conference of the PNP, he said: "I say that the mission of my generation was to win self-government for Jamaica. To win political power which is the final power for the black masses of my country from which I spring. I am proud to stand here today and say to you who fought that fight with me, say it with gladness and pride: Mission accomplished for my generation".

"And what is the mission of this generation?… It is…reconstructing the social and economic society and life of Jamaica".

Shortly before his death he was proclaimed a National Hero of Jamaica, along with Bustamante, the black nationalist Marcus Garvey, nineteenth century rebel Paul Bogle, and nineteenth century politician George William Gordon. Norman Manley died on September 2, 1969.

Manley's speech entitled, To Unite in a Common Battle was delivered in 1945 at Chicago, Illinois, United States, during the thirty-first General Convention of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first Greek-letter university fraternity for African Americans [1] of which he was an honorary member.